dvd plays at 720 x 576 but when ripped goes to 352 x 576 and is squashed

[aljolson]

i have a dvdv from a sony dvd recorder and it plays at normal dvd res on pc and one of my 3 players.
when i rip it the vobs play at full size. but when i import them into any software they think they are 352 x 576. if i resize them i have lost loads of quality on re encode.
is there a tool i can use to change the way programs read the info to make them think they are 720?
cheers

edit
dvddecrypt rips them to hard drive. vlc player plays them normally but virtualdub sees and 'plays' them half width.
tmpg author 1.6 wont make a mpeg out of the vobs ripped by dvd decrypt giving an error. and it wont rip the dvd to pc either.

[Baldrick]

THey are probably 352x576 with 4:3 aspect ratio so they will be played correct, open the vobs with mediainfo to check. And then you must upresize them to 720x576 if you want to be that. Or why not leave it as 352x576 if you are going to make a new DVD, it is a dvd compliant resolution.

[aljolson]

cheers for reply but everything is squashed up?

i want to edit to a 3 min clip and eventually upload to youtube.
did one a week ago and found if i finish with 640 x 480 wmv and just under 10 megs, youtube reencodes and plays almost acceptable standard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTXA3MHEvww

if i upsize it from 352 to 640 wont it be totally pixellated?
i use prem pro to edit and have to convert to mpeg files then use summat like (forgot now) vapi and dgindex to create a wav file and a fake avi that prem pro will edit.

[guns1inger]

The video was recorded as half-D1 (see What is DVD - top left corner) and any good player will recognise it as such and play it back correctly. However if you just take the VOB, some players will not understand the resolution and will have to manually be told to playback correctly. When this type of recording is playback correctly, the player (software or hardware) simple stretches the horizontal by 100% (doubles the size of each pixel). You get a slightly softer image.

if i upsize it from 352 to 640 wont it be totally pixellated?

How does it look on your TV ? Your TV is resizing it to 720, but it doesn't pixellate.

[aljolson]

it is 720 on tv and on pc and isnt very good quality on my tv. crap recorder.
anyway so i want to edit it and unsquash it back to normal aspect. what is the best way to do that please?
prem pro wont unsqueeze it.
just used virtualdub to crop and then resize it to 640 480 with no compression and it has degraded as if it is already on you tube!!!
if a tv and dvd player can think it is 720 and play it almost as if it has the quality of 720 then how can i get software to recognise it as if its 720.
once it is 352 there is nothin i can do to magically increase the quality back. you see what i'm getting at?

[guns1inger]

If it is crap on your TV then you are right - there is nothing you can do about it. If the source is rubbish, it is pretty much game over.

Your other alternative is to deinterlace it and then resize to 352 x 288.

[aljolson]

i may have misled you.
lets imagine the tv picture is fine.
now what do i do.

[guns1inger]

Deinterlace, resize to 640 x 480, then encode with sufficient bitrate to not do further damage. If you are getting low quality from virtualdub then you are doing something wrong. resizing interlaced footage without deinterlacing first will produce poor results, as will encoding it incorrectly when you save it. You will have to do some research into the best method for deinterlacing, as it something I rarely do, and if I must then I use Avisynth to do it. if it is for conversion to Xvid/Divx then I let AutoGK do all the work for me. That might be an option in this case as well.

[aljolson]

cheers gun
the point im trying to make is that the finished product (ie after edit with prem pro and output to 352 x 576 quality still v good then use virtualdub deinterlace while at 352 then resize to 640) pic quality is a lot poorer than the 352 which will play on tv at almost dvd res. so it cant be a true 352 can it?
and i have tried loads of diff compressions mpeg4 v3 i find best for compresision quality.

just did a small clip with no compression and it degrades but not as bad using lanzcos resize whatever that is.
its a shame that the 640 isnt as good as the 352 stretched to 720
if ya know what i mean

[guns1inger]

Then you are doing something wrong in the way you process or save the video. Premiere Pro is not the best choice for editing mpeg video either.

[aljolson]

maybe im not doing anything wrong and maybe the way the 352 fools dvd players to play at normal aspect ie 720 cant fool software which takes it for what it is 352 and so when it gets resized to 640 no way can it look as good.
prem pro will only edit mpeg if i create a fake avi using vfapi and dgindex and then its perfect.
i tried womble but it isnt as user friendly as pp.

[guns1inger]

half-D1 is encoded the same as full-D1, but with only half the number of horizontal pictures. Any editing software can resize this in the same way your DVD player or playback software does. The cost is a softer image on playback. You should be able to easily resize this without getting a quality lower than your TV provides, even using Premiere.

If this is proving so difficult, why not load it into virtualdub, resize it to 720 x 576, save it as DV, then edit and work on it. Use the cedocida DV codec.

[aljolson]

i normally use a dv codec as output from virtualdub- mainconcept dv 2.0.4, so i am able to edit in prem pro. will try the resize in vdub now
edit and the result is perfect. miles better than 640 x 480. why i dont know.
now to convert the full 3 hours while i go to sleep